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Horizons Regional Council

Wednesday 1 April, 2015

Erosion works audit delivers good news

Horizons Regional Council’s recent audit of Sustainable Land Use Initiative (SLUI) erosion works has revealed works have been completed to a high standard and are on track to reduce erosion by 80 per cent.

The audit was undertaken to determine how well SLUI erosion works had been completed and what impact they were making. 20 farms under the programme were chosen at random and visited by Horizons land management staff over a 10 week period.

Horizons environmental manager land Grant Cooper says planting growth, fence success, effectiveness of erosion control, land use capability and erosion priority were all assessed on site.

“We were really impressed by the high standard undertaken by farmers when it came to completing erosion works,” says Mr Cooper.

“Interim results from the audit show overall survival of plantings is 85 per cent, which is really good considering some of the pretty challenging environments trees were planted in. Effectiveness of erosion control came in at 80 per cent on average.”

Mr Cooper says staff were pleased to see most farmers had not only completed SLUI erosion works as part of the programme, but also voluntarily undertaken a number of unfunded works.

“When a farmer undertakes SLUI we provide a Whole Farm Plan which identifies erosion prone areas. From here areas are prioritised and SLUI contributes a portion of funding to the cost of works.

“However on a number of farms, farmers have completed works further down the list completely out of their own pocket after seeing the benefit of the SLUI funded work. So in addition to the 1,200 hectares of SLUI works done on the 20 farms, 400 hectares of unfunded works have been completed,” he says.

Conversations on site revealed this is in part due to farmers learning how to do works through SLUI and gaining the confidence to attempt more.

“Other feedback included opinions on Whole Farm Plan recommendations, benefits of riparian retirement, questions about hill country cropping consents and pole planting varieties,” says Mr Cooper.

“From here we hope to continue providing farmers with ongoing advice around caring for their works and information on consents for cultivation, tracking, clearing and logging.”

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